mail box vs town plow....

[DavidVT]

Hi,
Looking for ideas to improve my mail box's survival rate vs the town plow...

Typical rural mail on a post next to the road situation.

I made it 9 years on this mail box, a pretty good record considering how many mailboxes get nailed these days. I have reflective strips all over it and that seemed to help until now.....

Seems the town went from a 6 wheel dump truck to the new improved 10 wheel dump truck. The new one just flat out hauls butt and they seem to have given up on raising the wing when coming to drives or mailboxes...

So, who has a nice mailbox mounting idea that will survive the annual snow plow assaults???

I am have considered the telephone pole kind of post that will make the plow notice it just hit something. However the EMS part of my brain knows that trying to do the immovable object vs irresitable force is just not the right way to go. I would hate to come out some summer night and find a drunk kid in his dad's jetta wrapped around the unmoveable mailbox.

So I am starting to think about some kind of swivel/sheerpin setup that would allow the mailbox to swing away from the road when the plow monster hits too hard.

I suspect the damage is done by the wall of snow they throw at 60mph, rather than actual contact with the plow itself...

Thanks for any ideas....

 

[oscar80]

Maybe something on a pivot that is off the road. the box would still be were its at with a pivot of some sorts a ways behind it. So when it gets smacked it just pivots back and you would just have to reset it.

Mailswing Pivoting Mailbox Survives Snow Plows [Home Improvement Ideas]

Dave

 

[DavidVT]

interesting idea, now to figure out how to make it myself.. $200 sounds steep unless I loose a mailbox every year...

 

[shvl73]

I wouldn't be so worried about it getting hit if it was placed well out of the travel lane. A "drunk" or anyone else, has to pass many telephone poles, stone walls, oncoming cars, trees, other mailboxes and whatever else, before getting to your mailbox. Ours is hung from a 4x4 post w/ a cross arm, suspended by chains and works well.

 

[oscar80]

Put a steel pipe in the ground away from the road. Make a little ledge for another slightly bigger pipe to sit on. Then weld an arm to that for the mailbox. That shouldnt cost too much. I would put a soft stop or something on it so it doesnt swing all the way around and get smacked again.

Dave

 

[mjarrels]

Saw one in Ca. some years ago mounted on about a 25' pole labeled AIR MAIL.

mark

 

[RobS]

I've seen ones like Dave posted but with a longer arm. The post sits further from the road that way. The key is an angled pivot pin that makes the arm always return to the center position. These are very common in upper Michigan.

 

[billbill1]

Ours gets taken out everytime they plow the road, the plow is going so fast that the snow and ice caves in the mailbox. They come by and pound it back into a shape that will almost resemble a mailbox. Our mail gets soaked too. We have lost or at least had ours torn up 10 times in the 7 years we have lived here. Like you, I have no clue how to solve it. The plastic kind just shears off the mailbox portion, we have lost 2 of those.

 

[ToadHill]

Iron pole mounted in the ground about 6 feet off the road. A pole from the mounted one out to the road with the mail box on it. Welded between the two a large coil spring from a car.

As the plow hits the box, the coil spring flexes out of the way then springs back when the pressure against it is released.

Just don't stand in the way when it springs back.

 

[BigE_]

My solution was pretty cheap -- $26 per year for a PO Box in town. Sure, town is 5 miles away, but I no longer worry about my mailbox, and my mail is dry, safe from ID theft people. Also, my neighbors used to always get my mail, and I'd get theirs. That no longer happens.

That being said, the guy who owned the house previous to me had a problem with hoodlums and baseball bats. He sunk a 3" diameter 1/2" wall metal post 4' into the ground, and mounted a custom built 1/4" steel mailbox on top of that. The next Saturday night he sat outside waiting.... Sure enough, around 11:30pm, he hears this loud THWANG, closely followed a loud cry and some swearing. Mailbox wasn't even phased. Of course, nothing is perfect, and post wasn't 100% level, so the new mailbox gets water inside every time it rains.

Another guy I know told me of a problem he had with the county snow plow. Every winter, the wood post on his mailbox would get sheared off at least once per winter. He tried markers, etc., but the plow guy didn't seem to care, and the country wouldn't do anything with his complaints. Finally, he dug a deep hole and put in a 12" metal culvert pipe in. Filled it with cement, and mounted the mailbox on top. The next winter the plow guy had to explain to his boss how his new blade got the side broken off....

 

[billbill1]

They don't hit my mailbox, the force of the flying snow takes it out.

 

[davitk]

I think I'm going to do like BigE, get a PO box in town. Tired of getting the neighbors' mail, keep the ID theft thing in check, and let the plow guy have some breathing room.

 

[MikeD74T]

I had a problem with a state DOT driver winging snow hard enough to knock over the mailbox at my second home. I never get mail there but have house numbers on it for emergency response. Went to talk with the foreman & got a run around about mailbox being on the right of way (like everyone has their mailbox 15' off the pavement? ), can't control every driver all the time, etc. Later learned from friends that he thought it quite funny & was yukking it up at the local diner that day. Next time it got knocked over I went back to see him and explained that since I was sure none of his drivers would do intentional damage that maybe some were somehow too impaired to drive safely & perhaps drug/alcohol testing might be in order. Also indicated that I'd try to video the next event to send to the highway superintendant. Problem solved - no more broken mailbox.
Oddly enough a couple of years later the foreman wrecked a pickup during storm patrol & was terminated for DWI. MikeD74T

 

[cup149]

Here is Penndot's suggestion
http://www.ebrandywine.org/images/extras/Winterizing your mailbox.pdf

 

[chh]

Be careful with the extreme mailbox suggestions as tempting as they may be. Our problem in OK is hoodlums not plows, but when talking to a couple of postmasters they indicated that a mailbox mounting that won't give when hit by a vehicle in an accident makes you liable for the resulting injuries or death. I have 2 mailboxes at different adresses(1 business and 1 personal) after replacing 5 in the last year or so I gave up and moved to a PO box. In these days of ID theft and ect it is probably the safe bet anyway.

The sad part for me is that my parents or I have had a mailbox on the corner by my house since sometime in the 1940's. The one my parents originally put up was smashed in an auto accident in the mid 70's, the replacement lasted until the mid 90's and I can't count the number I've replaced in the last 10 years.

 

[DavidVT]

yes, it is that liability issue that keeps me from the concrete filled culvert idea, regardless of how much I'd love to do that

It will be some time before the ground is soft enough to install a new post.

Meanwhile I appreciate any good ideas.. Thanks for the ideas thus far!!

David

 

[4720 OWNER]

How about telling the postman that there was cookies in the mailbox for him but the snow plow driver hit the box and they scattered all over and then the birds ate them!!

Love to see govt bite its own tale and grin to tell about it!!

 

[scott_vt]

Iron pole mounted in the ground about 6 feet off the road. A pole from the mounted one out to the road with the mail box on it. Welded between the two a large coil spring from a car.

As the plow hits the box, the coil spring flexes out of the way then springs back when the pressure against it is released.

Just don't stand in the way when it springs back.

Evenin David,
ToadHill has the right idea ! Many of my neighbors at my Vt home use just that system to protect their mailbox !

 

[tomd999]

Hiya,

We go through about 1 per year between the towns big Cat grader with the highway wing and the assorted teenagers with broom sticks and bats. I was tempted to get one of the diamond plate "vandal proof" ones but 70 bucks is a lot. So I'll keep changing them out.

Here's a few funny ones though.


Tom

 

[Soundguy]

How about a post farther back from the street, with a arm supporting the box a few feet out from the post.

soundguy